Heimatfront Episode One: The Girl And Her Tank
by CaptainDavidBlake
Summary: Southeast Germany, March 1945 - World War II in Europe is coming to a grizzly end. In a distant farming complex a group of girls is given the task of repairing some old tanks to help in the last ditch defense of the Fatherland. The task is harder than it sounds and it's up to a newcomer to make her new friends into a woking team while also dealing with their own innermost secrets.
1. Welcome to World War II

DISCLAIMER

1 - This is a fanwork made for fun and to spread the love for all things _Girls Und Panzer_ and History around. _Girls Und Panzer_ belongs to its legal owners, as well as its characters and story. Also the show is awesome and you should really buy the DVDs.

2 - I need to thank BlueJay62, F-14 Tomcat Lover, FenrirWolf, Kite Thanril, Theralion, Rogue Baron, Yemi Hikari and the helpful guys at the Girls Und Panzer FaceBook group for all the help and support. The good parts of this fic only exist thanks to them. The bad parts, though, are all mine.

I

WELCOME TO WORLD WAR TWO

The feeling was always the same. It was unavoidable, after all. Those things weren't meant to be comfortable. The stink of burnt fuel and oil crawled up the nostrils, becoming either unbearable or simply eliminated from conscience altogether. Like everything else it had to become a second nature or one wouldn't even join the Army's elite at all. A sore throat was just part of the gig.

The same could be said about the rocking. The suspension did what it could to stabilize the hull, but still it was too hard, meant to allow the vehicle to cross over uneven terrain and not to preserve the crew's backs. So each elevation, each rock, each trench, it all went through everyone's body.

And then there was the noise. The howl of the engine, located behind the fighting compartment, reverberated inside the thick steel walls, without anything to bounce against but the frail bodies which made the machine come to life. The same sound which made orders and warnings so difficult to hear. And, from time to time, came the thundering of the main gun or the hysterical laughter of the Spandaus. It all made the eardrums ache and the head dizzy.

And yet the crew kept moving forward, the the commander barking instructions to them. The attack was on the way and it was said that the enemy was already breaking. It seemed all too good to be true but the commanders insisted in pushing on, using the perceived advantage.

The driver knew he shouldn't focus on anything else but his job. The tank commander's voice erupted from his headphones telling him where to go and he acted accordingly. Through the small window right in front of his eyes he saw one of the Soviet tanks. It was a small one, an outdated BT-7, sporting its characteristic helmet-shaped turret and square hull.

It was rather rare for a driver to have such a clear sight of the prey of his own ride. Usually the tanks tried to maneuver while turning their turrets at any apparent target. That was a lucky break. The Soviet vehicle was even turning its back at the German attacking units, probably searching for some other tank that'd just rolled past it.

A terrible mistake.

The main gun of the _Panzer_ IV burst in flames as the propellant ignited and the armor-piercing round escaped the short barrel, covering the few hundred meters separating it from the BT-7 in a fraction of a second. The engine compartment of the BT-7 exploded, a shower of splintered metal cascading from both sides of the small tank. It stopped moving and then disappeared of the German driver's field of vision as the attacking unit rolled past it.

The driver was feeling a wave of excitement. His crew had just killed an enemy tank, the first in the afternoon. Certainly many more would follow. He had no doubts regarding their victory now. Even the pure fear of the moment before was all but pushed away by the fleeting sight of the burning adversary.

Under him the _Panzer_ kept rolling. Obeying his instructions he made the tank turn and abandon the small woodland it'd been traveling through during the last few minutes.

Seemingly out of nowhere the angular T-34 materialized on the left side as soon as they rolled past the line of trees. The Soviet tank was charging at them, its main gun already aimed.

For a split second the driver didn't even hear the orders barked in panic by his commander. He could only stare at the Soviet main gun. The exhilaration dimmed and panic ascended through his spine, a wave of pure and unfiltered terror. In that moment the certainty of victory, the exultation of combat and the adrenaline of driving twenty tons of deadly metal were all cleared away.

In that moment he could only think of his wife, his son and his daughter.

And then the Soviet tank opened fire.


	2. Maria

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

Telling the basic GuP plot through the eyes of German girls in World War II was something that came to my mind shortly after I knew what the show was about. The problem with this premise was how I could ever justify the Japanese names of the girls. I thought thoroughly about the issue until I realized I couldn't do it. So I decided to change the names into something that sounded similar but allowed me to keep the story historically accurate without too many convoluted explanations.

Did it work? Let's find out.

**Anglerfish Team:**

Commander – Maria Nitzschmann

* * *

II

MARIA

Maria Nitzschmann awoke from her daydream when the _Mercedes-Benz_ hit a bump in the road, making all the three occupants in the car jerk left and right like ragdolls. She glared at the driver, sat at her left, who tried to keep the car steady through that disaster that once was a perfectly flat dirt road. She couldn't even dare to imagine what kind of endeavor it should be for the men who had to drive through there day in and day out.

"Watch out for the road." Maria told the driver nonetheless. Emi didn't even spare her an aside glance as she clutched firmly at the steering wheel and focused all of her attention at the path in front of her.

"You think this is easy?" Emi spat at Maria. "I don't care if you can repair an engine while you're asleep, I would want to see you do better than this!"

The faint trace of a smile appeared on Maria's usually impassive face. That was exactly what she wanted to hear.

She extended an arm and grabbed the steering wheel, pushing and pulling, making the car evade two craters and a bump, effectively saving the occupants from biting their tongues when the tires hit them. Of course, the action only made Emi even more infuriated. She slapped Maria's hand out of the wheel.

"Hey, what are you doing? I'm the designated driver here!"

Maria glanced at her as she focused on her task once again. Behind them, the older woman who had chosen those two girls to escort her in that mission decided to finally intervene in the conversation.

"Girls… I would like to get there on time… and alive." _Führerin_ Agnes Pförter, the leader of those girls' BDM grouping said.

In front seats the girls dismissively waved back at her, without turning. "_Ja, Führerin_!" They chorused.

The matter was settled for the moment but the driving kept being bumpy and uncomfortable while the heavy-looking car dashed across the dirt trail, its engine roaring in the cold dawn. A timid sun was still peeking under the horizon, lazily crawling out of its nighttime hideout, an irregular cover of clouds hiding its face from the people below.

Maria let out a silent sigh. The landscape beyond her window was a wonderful sequence of pristine grasslands, small woods and tiny villages. It couldn't be more different from the urban reality she'd known for most of her life.

The German cities from before the war were known for their assortment of industrial facilities and wide recreational lanes, many times standing side by side, always heavily controlled by the Party, like everything else in the country for that matter. Since the moment they've grabbed the power, back in 1933, that the _Nationalsozialists_ generally known as the Nazis, kept pushing their influence into every aspect of German life, from workplaces to entertainment and, of course, the social institutions, especially the juvenile organizations.

Even before Maria reached the age at which she could join in that her mother referenced the pride it would be to enlist her in the _Bunde Deutscher Madel_, the League of German Maidens or BDM for short.

The BDM itself was officially part of the _Hitlerjugend_, in which Maria's older brother enlisted at a very early age, but while the last was created with the intention of educating young boys into the martial nature of the 3rd _Reich_, the League was aimed at raising a generation of girls accordingly with the model of German femininity idealized by the Nazi leadership. Ideals in which Maria's mother believed with a passion.

Since she was 12 that Maria served in the grouping of her hometown, but recently it was decided to dismantle it and send the girls to other BDM segments which could use more people. They would send her away from her mother and her father.

The thought of her father made Maria even sadder. She remembered his incredulous expression when he was told the local grouping had been disbanded and his baby girl would be sent southward to fill some gaps in the _Hitlerjugend_'s ranks.

"How can they do that? The girls are still too young to be sent away like this!" He'd yelled, punching the sides of his wheelchair in frustration. Sitting on the other side of the table, Maria's mother was much calmer.

"They do what they're told, Wolfgang, like everyone else. It's an honor to be called to serve the country."

The old soldier turned to face his wife with a grumpy expression.

"These girls are only sixteen or younger, Sarah! What will they do that far away from home?" He opened his arms. "And who will take care of them? I've heard things..."

Sarah Nitzschmann shrugged.

"Jewish propaganda, probably." She replied, no hint of doubt in her voice. "And what would you do, anyhow? Refuse?"

Wolfgang lowered his head. There was no proper answer to that question. Refusing could earn them a visit from a _Gestapo_ agent, and even worse things would then follow. The old soldier and his wife turned to Maria, standing in the middle of the living room, feeling as if she was being evaluated by her rigorous teachers, finding her only flicker of solace in the obvious worrying shown by her father.

The separation would be hard for him. Since Marco left home that Maria had been her father's only true friend. And she loved his company. Together they went fishing and discussed military themes, especially armored warfare, something that no German girl was expected to indulge in. Her mother would lose her temper in a very explosive way if she ever found about it. But it was fun and allowed Maria to really open herself, something the environment in the BDM grouping didn't allowed either.

And after the dreadful experience from just a few weeks ago, he was the one who was there when she needed to cry. Being away from him would hurt her as much as it would hurt her father.

The _Mercedes _turned in the very next curve, making a large white wall invade Maria's field of vision. It also drew her away from her digression. A second later the car passed through a set of open gates, coming to a halt in the open plaza which was the center of the Baderberg farming complex.

They had arrived.


	3. Baderberg

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

Alternate realities are a fun thing to work with. How would a certain circumstance work in a wildly different setting? What would this difference do to the characters and what would they keep of themselves when thrown into something that is for all intents and purposes alien to their original intent?

These are questions I had to work around when coming up with this piece of fiction you're reading. This brings up yet another question: how much does the name make the character?

**Turtle Team:**

Commander – Anja Konigsberg

Gunner – Monica Kayserling

Driver – Ursel Koehne

* * *

III

BADERBERG

There was already a small welcoming party waiting for them in front of one the nearest structure, a single-floor office building by the looks of it. Emi killed the engine and then the three occupants got out of the car while the group approached. In the center and front of the group was Anni Schon, the leader of the grouping. A young adult, she was evidently older than the three maidens standing in line just behind her.

Maria evaluated them quickly while Schon made the presentations.

Anja Konigsberg was Schon's second-in-command. As so she was the one responsible for directly ordering the girls detached to the farms. She was young, probably of the same age as Maria, and had an unwavering arrogant smirk in her face.

The taller among the present teenage girls, Monica Kayserling had brown hair and used glasses. Seemingly calm and passive, there was a faint fluttering in her dark eyes which Maria couldn't really place. Or maybe it was just her imagination playing tricks on her.

Finally there was Ursel Koehne. Short and with dark hair and darker eyes, she seemed to be the meek one of group.

All of them seemed quite presentable in their BDM uniforms, the shirts plainly white, contrasting with the black ties, and the skirts dark blue. The old Agnes grinned while she was talking to Schon, something she rarely did, the constant scorn having become an intrinsic part of her own face, or so Maria had thought.

"I reckon you had some breaks in your quota?" Agnes asked the young leader, going directly to the issue.

"We've had some problems with the water." Schon replied, shaking her head. "It has been tampered with."

"Sabotage?"

"Probably not, at least the local police doesn't think so. It might be something natural, but…"

While the leaders talked Maria used the moment to inspect the space around her. To the north a few trucks were standing in front of a set of warehouses, being loaded with supplies.

To the east there was a garage where the agricultural tractors were parked. There were also several smaller structures which comprised of barracks, office buildings, a mess hall, and so on. A little further away to the east were the stables where the animals were sheltered during the night. Now they were happily grazing in the nearby hills under the vigilance of some of the BDM girls.

Beyond the small cluster of buildings was a large white warehouse with big gates which seemed abandoned for some reason, the white paint already peeling away. The wide fields where the crops grew spread across the hills just behind the ominous building. It actually was an amazing view, and Maria's attention was quickly drawn by the frantic activity.

"On another note, what about the tanks I was told you had here?" Agnes asked while she also studied the installations around her. "Can you repair them?"

Schon seemed surprised by the sudden change in the subject, but she had to know Agnes would touch the issue at some point. Maria still remembered how surprised the older _Führerin_ seemed when she saw that topic in the report which sent her there, even commenting on it out loud.

"I believe they are." Schon replied, recovering surprisingly fast. "But we aren't specialists in military equipment by any stretch of the imagination. We need some informed opinion regarding that."

"That can be provided." Agnes turned at Maria, who was still glancing around, seemingly oblivious to the conversation, but paying attention nonetheless. "Nitzschmann, can you give it a look?"

Regardless of how it was put, that was not a question and Maria knew it very well. She straightened.

"_Ja, meine Führerin_." She said, her voice level.

Schon turned at the girl named Anja. "Can you show her the way?"

The girl with the confident smile straightened in reply, but said nothing to her leader. She then glanced at Maria beside her.

"Please come with me." And she immediately turned on her heels and walked away, shocking Maria with her straightforwardness. The BDM did have some military undertones and the girl was evidently used to it, but its members were still girls and were used to idle chitchatting and overlong goodbyes even in formal occasions. Anja didn't do anything like that and dived directly into the problem. Maria liked that, she thought while she stepped up her pace to match Anja's.

"So, where to?" She asked her. Anja pointed at the ominous white building in the far edge of the complex.

"Why, the big hangar over there of course."

Maria nodded in acknowledgement, somewhat trying to hide her moment of self-depreciation. Of course it was the large rusty building, it wasn't like there was something else around large enough to hold big combat vehicles.

"So tell me," Anja started, "why are you coming with me to do this and not someone from the nearest military base? Do have any experience with tanks?"

At first Maria dismissed the question as simply an excuse to make a conversation. But then she noticed the side glance Anja was giving her, a glitter in the corner of her eye as some gears turned in her head. Used to the politicking of large workplaces as she was, she could guess that girl was up to something. Better to play safe for the moment.

"You can say that." She replied, her voice still level, although with a hint of uneasiness. She couldn't avoid it. Referencing the subject always brought terrible memories to her mind, things she preferred to forget. "And the nearest military base is too far away." She added while smiling. "I'm still the most practical solution at the moment."

They kept walking in silence for a while, but the hangar was still some minutes away, so Maria thought it would help the time pass faster if they indeed chatted a little. She asked: "A question… How did you got tanks anyway?"

Anja shrugged.

"The Army used to have a test field not far from here. When it was bombed in the last year they decided to move their assets somewhere else, but left here what they couldn't repair at the time." She smirked ironically at Maria. "So they could come back later to retrieve them."

"Why do you find it funny?"

"I don't find it funny. Amusing, maybe. They never came for the tanks. So many things have been going wrong with the country, it seemed, why can't this be one more of them, right?"

The hangar was now so close it almost dominated Maria's field of vision. It was hard to have a real notion of its size from afar but the thing was indeed massive. The two girls halted in front of the main gates, solidly shut and with rust forming around its edges.

"How…" Maria was still glancing up. She was used to large facilities but finding something like that in the middle of nowhere was indeed surprising. "Why do you have a building like this?"

Beside her Anja was looking for the keys in her pockets. Maria's question made her smirk widen as she pondered her answer.

"This complex started off as a _Luftwaffe_ airbase in the 30s." She replied, pride in voice. "But was later repurposed when they built larger airfields. This stayed here, though. It's kind of cool, isn't it?"

Having found the key she wanted, Anja moved forward and opened the lock closing shut the small Judas gate at the edge of the main gate.

"I guess it is." Maria conceded, her voice almost a whisper.

"Then wait until you see what's next." Anja spouted back with a chuckle.

She opened the door and gestured for Maria to enter first. She'd been right, what waited inside was indeed an impressing sight.


	4. A World of Tanks

IV

A WORLD OF TANKS

It was a curious assortment of old and wrecked vehicles, seemingly from all over the world, as American-built M3 Mediums stood right beside a German StuG III and a Czech _Panzer_ 38(t). As she stepped into the building Maria couldn't help but 'wowing' at what she had right in front of her. The half-light coming from the ample windows overhead only made the sight even eerier, the sun still too low to properly illuminate the hangar, shadows falling from the railing overhead like ghostly mist.

Of course, it all became much less impressive as she got closer and noticed the state in which those deadly war machines really were. Half of them didn't have any tracks anymore; some were even missing a few wheels, as well as equipment vaults, engine covers and mudguards. Interestingly enough most of them kept their armament, although Maria could only guess about for how long had those machineguns and cannons remained silent.

Maria walked among the decaying giants of metal with awe until her attention was claimed by the one standing in the farthest corner, a little further away from the others like if it was ashamed of its companions for some reason. In silence, she walked to it, her eyes inspecting every centimeter as she closed in.

It was an old _Panzer _IV of the _Ausfuhrung_ F.2 model, equipped with a high-velocity 7,5cm KwK 40 main gun. Still a magnificent fighting machine, it was now outclassed by recent developments in armored warfare. More important, though, was the fact that the damned thing was simply awesome to look at. The angular hull was straightforward and yet effective, without a single centimeter of wasted space. Contrary to the tall and bulky M3 Mediums the _Ausf._ F.2 wasn't bristling with weaponry and instead only had two MG42s to complement the main gun and the engine was a petrol-fed Maybach V-12, reliable as a Swiss watch. The whole thing screamed German engineering and deadly intent and Maria simply loved it!

She didn't even registered she was now smiling, a faint humming rising from her throat. Her hand patted the flank of the _Panzer_ IV, her fingers feeling each dent in the pain, each blotch of rust, each imperfection in the steel which protected the crew inside during a battle. And when she reached the back of the vehicle she jumped to the top of the engine cover, holding to the opened hood to pull herself up.

The engine itself was rusty, but most of the parts were still there and what was missing shouldn't be that hard to obtain, she immediately assessed. Then she peeked through the open commander's hatch in the back of the turret, to the fighting compartment in the heart of the machine. Again, rust was settling in, but everything was pretty much in order.

"So, what do you think?"

Anja's voice almost made her jump. She didn't even realize she'd enclosed herself in her little world while her mind registered every detail of the tanks around her. Maria turned at the other girl, who was standing right beside the _Panzer_ IV, arms crossed and glance focused on her. Her smirk almost faded as a more inquisitive expression took its place.

"Everything seems to be in order." Maria managed to say, giving a last glance at the interior of the tank before jumping to the ground. "With a few extra parts and a small team to work with one could bring at least half of these back into service in a month or so."

"So they're serviceable?"

"Yes." Maria shrugged. "I mean, not yet, but I've seen worse."

Anja's smirk returned, as well as that glitter in her eye.

"I'm still curious how you got to know those things." She said. "Is your father in the military, maybe?"

Needless to say, the question made Maria slightly nervous. She looked at the other tanks close by, finding she couldn't look directly at the other girl while she answered her question.

"He was. Fought in a _Panzer_ Battalion in Russia before he got injured and sent home." She didn't need to get into details and tell Anja her beloved father had lost his two legs when his tank was hit by enemy fire and was now stuck to a wheelchair.

"So he was a tanker." It wasn't a question; Maria had to glance at the girl momentarily to realize that.

"Ja." She replied anyhow.

"You're an interesting person, Nitzschmann." Anja finally said, with a smirk that seemed all too creepy to Maria. Where was she trying to get? "Do you have anything else you'd like to see? I believe we should be moving back now."

Maria shook her head.

"I've seen enough."

"Very well then…"

In a few minutes the girls were out of the hangar, with Anja using a moment to lock the door behind them, and walking back to their leaders who were still engaged in a discussion regarding the management of the farming complex. It seemed to have descended into peripheral issues like the dressing code or the methods to arrange the vegetables. Maria concluded that Agnes was being picky simply to keep Schon talking, while also putting her on the edge and show who was really in charge there.

"Ah, here you are." Old Agnes said when she saw Maria and Anja approaching. "So, what's your assessment?"

"I think they can recover the tanks with what they have here." Maria replied. "They'll just need to request a few parts, but I believe there wouldn't be any problems with that."

The older leader nodded with approval. "You think you can take care of it?"

Maria opened her mouth to answer a moment before she realized the implications of that question.

"What?" It was all she managed to mutter. Was Agnes asking her to stay there? The _Führerin_ narrowed her eyes as she noticed the girl's hesitation.

"So?"

For a moment Maria went out of words. Was her leader asking her to go to work with tanks once again? Maria did enjoy being surrounded by the machines once again, but only as a fleeting moment. She still believed she couldn't stand to work with them again. It would be impossible to pull back the memories she tried so hard to repress if that was the case. Memories of fire and death…

"Nitzschmann, I'm talking to you."

The level but imposing tone of Agnes' voice brought Maria back to the here and now, the girl instinctively straightening to attention. She didn't even realize she was spacing out. How could Agnes ask that to her if the mere idea of working with tanks again made her react like that? And Maria didn't even know anyone there! Who should she trust, who should she be afraid of?

Did she have to start from scratch? Again?

Even so she was a well-indoctrinated young maiden. And a German maiden would never refuse her duty, even if at the cost of her life or her sanity.

"I-I think I can manage, _meine Führerin_." She barely believed she'd actually said those words after the fact.

On the other hand Agnes seemed satisfied with her reaction. She nodded at the girl and then turned at Schon.

"You can keep her. She's hard working and obedient like all maidens should, and she will do what's asked of her. Don't you forget that those tanks must be ready in one month's time at most. A local Army unit will then come by to retrieve them, is that clear?"

"As water, _meine Führerin_."

"Good. Make the necessary arrangements and provide for this girl to have the parts and the manpower she needs." Agnes glanced around one last time before adding. "I'll be going now. Baderberg's appraisal to Berlin will be mostly positive, make for it to stay like that in future occasions, Schon."

Agnes then moved to the car. Emi went ahead and got to the driver's seat, immediately starting the engine. The old leader, on the other hand, sat at the backseat, as haughty as ever. Suddenly feeling incredibly uneasy, Maria ran to the car coming to a halt right beside's Agnes' door.

"Will I- will I stay here like this?"

Agnes glanced at her for a second, her expression almost pitiful. Maria never really had any issues with the way the leader and the girls under her command. Albeit strict, Agnes was also rather forgiving, at least when compared with others of the same rank. But when she wanted to emphasize her position she could be truly intimidating.

"I need you to start working immediately. Someone will bring your belongings later on, for now I think Schon can provide for what you need." She seemed to notice Maria's uneasiness and added: "You realize the importance of this assignment, do you not?"

There was nothing Maria could say or do that would save her from that predicament, she now realized. Once again she straightened, although unable to hide the dread she was now feeling.

"I do. I won't fail you or the Fatherland."

"Excelent." Agnes leaned a little over the front seats. "Take us back."

Emi quickly obeyed, turning the car around and leaving through the main entrance of the Baderberg complex. Maria was left behind, her face a mask of bewildered incredulity. She didn't even notice Anja approaching her.

"Seems you get to stay with us." She said with a jocose smirk, patting Maria on the shoulder. "Welcome to Baderberg!"

Maria was at a loss of words. She could only moan while reality settled in. Once again she was left alone in a landscape of unknown faces. And this time she wouldn't be allowed the luxury of holding back the memories of what had happened just a couple of months ago.


	5. Friends

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

Once again the setting forces me to give new names to old characters. While no solution is perfect by this point I've committed myself to make this story as historical-accurate as possible.

**Anglerfish Team:**

Radio-operator – Simone Tammeke

Gunner – Hanna Opel

* * *

V

FRIENDS

This time she was dreaming with Lancaster bombers. The huge four-engine aircraft were flying under a pitch-black sky, escorted by smaller Mosquito scout bombers and enveloped by a halo of yellow light coming from underneath.

Their wide bellies opened and small metal cylinders started to fall, spreading across the sky as they met the airflow under the massive aircraft. The glow coming from below flashed as the canisters met the ground.

Something horrible was happening, but what? Maria was certain she knew what it was, but her mind had trouble in concentrating on that essential point.

Meanwhile the defenders started to respond.

A trio of radar-equipped Bf-110 night fighters roared as they approached the British formation. The twin 30mm cannons mounted in their heavy noses burst in wild gunfire, tracer rounds cutting through the sky.

A Mosquito simply exploded into a cloud of flames and spinning debris as it was hit. At the same time the engines on the left wing of one of the heavy bombers nearby caught fire, although the massive aircraft kept flying straight for a little longer. The crew answered immediately, training their turrets and aiming at the German gunfire flashing in the night. The light machine guns promptly unleashed their terrifying bawl.

Unaware of the quick response the German fighters kept their incoming vector, tilting slightly to their right in order to aim at the next bomber. The British rounds seemed to materialize from nowhere and hit the leading Bf-110, shattering the heavily framed canopy and covering the instruments in dark blood. Spouting fire and smoke, the doomed fighter started to spin out of control. Its companions scrambled in both directions, disappearing in the night.

Up ahead, the injured Lancaster was also hopeless, the fire spreading to the entire central section of the wing. It couldn't keep the altitude any longer, regardless of the frantic efforts of the crew.

Then the flaps fell off and the huge beast started to dive out of the sky, nose-first.

It descended over the burning landscape below. Maria could notice the details now. Heavy masonry buildings and lonely chimneys stood among the flames, as they extended across the streets, burning so hot that even the cars parked on the sidewalks melted into ponds of overheated metal. The inhabitants were long gone, turned into ashes, their screams and their lives forever forgotten, never to be remembered.

Now Maria clearly knew what she was looking at. That was Dresden, her home city. The ethereal radiance which seemed to envelop the bombers was actually the glow of the flames which had burned it to the ground.

She trembled as memories from the panic and the horror crossed her mind. She remembered the friends who'd never managed to escape the flames and the hot cinders which scalded her hands while she pushed the only living person she'd found from underneath an amorphous pile of ruble.

That was how she learned the true meaning of war. That was how she finally understood the words her father had hammered her with since he returned from the distant steppes.

The wounded Lancaster finally met the burning inferno it had caused. The crew's desperate attempt to survive ended when their aircraft detonated into a massive fireball which grew high in the sky, further illuminating the night.

Curiously enough, a familiar music was now overlapping the roar of the conflagration and the echoes of the explosions and gunfire. The notes rose higher and higher, in a triumphant crescendo of trumpet enthusiasm.

And then it hit her! She had to wake up! She wasn't at home anymore!

Maria literally jumped out of her mattress, almost falling over the girl using the bed beside hers. The girls around them gave her a surprised glance and Maria tried to smile back while she apologized. It certainly was not the best way to start the day!

Like everyone else, she was assigned to a bunk in the barracks of the complex. Usually she went to sleep so tired she seemed to wake up almost instantly after, several hours of dark dreamless night having passed by. But other times she was haunted by terrifying nightmares like that one. She could barely remember the last time she had a normal dream.

In spite of her fears, the hectic work pace of the last few days didn't allowed for Maria to reminisce too much about her recent past. Even so from time to time she would find herself unmoving, her eyes locked on some distant point well beyond what she was actually facing, while her mind drifted through walls of flames and desperate wailings. And then someone would snap her out of it, asking for instructions or remembering there was work to do. And their nights remained as terrifying as they've been for months.

It seemed there wasn't much she could do about it…

The first hour of the day went on as it usually did. First the morning exercises, where the whole grouping gathered at the plaza by the entrance and performed coordinated gymnastics, singing in one voice. A short bath with cold water taken from the local well followed and then the girls went to the mess hall to eat their meager breakfast.

As usual, Maria sat alone in the corner of a half-emptied table. Normally, she would finish her food, ingrained in her own thoughts, and then she would go back to work without a single word. But that morning would be different.

She was actually thinking on a problem with the transmission of one of the tanks that would have to be dealt with when she heard a voice coming from behind her.

"Do you mind if we join in?"

Maria turned on her chair and met the gazes of two girls. The one to the left was roughly of her own height, had light-brown hair, almost blonde, and hazel eyes. She also had a warm smile on her face. The other girl was tall, elegant in a very aristocratic way, with black hair and gentle dark-blue eyes. She was already acquainted with both of them, as they went a few times to help out in the hangar.

"Of course." Maria answered after a slight hesitation. The girls smiled to her and found their chairs, the first in front of Maria and the other just beside her.

"So, tell me, Nitzschmann, why are you always eating alone?" The first girl answered, leaning over the table, supporting her face on both hands.

"I-I…" For a couple seconds, Maria didn't really know what to say. Between her natural shyness and the fear that those girls could be informants her words just got stuck in her mouth. The other girl noticed her hesitation.

"Come on Simone, don't startle _Fraulein_ Nitzschmann." She said to her friend. Then she smiled at Maria. "We're just worried. You've been working so hard and yet you never stopped for a moment to really get to know anyone."

Well, they could be acting on actual good faith, Maria considered.

"You could stop for a while and make some friends." The first girl added. "Everyone notices how you sometimes phase out, you know? I have a friend of mine who's a soldier, and he does the same."

Now Maria was really at odds about what to do. She couldn't just push those two away. Keeping people in line during work was one thing, but that was something else entirely. She stirred at the porridge in her plate for a moment before she could find what to say.

"It's not easy for me to make friends." She admitted. It was true, it never was. She was naturally shy, although her current role somewhat diluted that part of herself, and even when she was younger it always took a good deal of time to get close to anyone even if she was much eager to do so back then. Recently she had become used to the idea of being on her own without really bonding with anyone.

"I understand." The taller girl said in her calm and friendly tone. "Maybe we should start by presenting ourselves. I'm-"

"Hanna Opel, from Elbing." Maria interrupted her, and then turned at the other girl. "And you're Simone Tammeke, from Leipzig."

"Wow!" Simone seemed actually surprised. "You know our names and were we're from?"

Maria shrugged.

"You've told me back in the hangar. And I'm good with this kind of things."

"You're just envious because you take too long to memorize people's names." Hanna told Simone.

"Hey, I'm good at talking to people!"

"You are," Hanna calmly agreed, "but it becomes somewhat awkward when you keep talking without acknowledging you actually forgot the person's name."

"Yeah, it happens." Simone admitted sheepishly.

Maria didn't knew why, but she found the back and forth conversation between the two to be actually funny. She chuckled and the two girls widened their smiles, suddenly aware of their own words.

Now that the mood was more relaxed Simone leaned more over the table, like if she wanted to reach Maria's nose with her own. She seemed rather excited and all-too curious.

"So, we wanted to ask you this question…" She started to say.

"Yes?" Maria muttered, encouraging Simone to say what was in her mind. Her smile widened even more, something Maria didn't think to be possible.

"You really know a lot about those tanks." Simone stated, gesticulating exuberantly. "You know them inside out. Where did you learn that? Was your father?"

Hanna seemed to notice as Maria scratched the wooden table with her nail, searching for an answer in the turmoil of emotions inside her head.

"We know you've been avoiding talking about this but everyone's asking and you never really answered to anyone." Hanna told her. "I was also like that at the start when I got here, you know?"

The question surprised Maria, who turned to face her. On the other side of the table, Simone leaned back, knowing very well what would follow.

"I'm from Elbing, as you've said. The city was taken by the Soviets last year." She noticed Maria was nodding sadly at her words. "I was lucky though. My parents sent me here so I could be safe while they stayed behind to take care of our family business. At the beginning I really didn't want to talk to anyone due to how homesick I was…"

She made a short stop at this point glancing at the ceiling as if to reminisce on the fact. A second later she sighed and looked back at Maria.

"Your parent's… Are they…" Maria couldn't get herself to finish the sentence. The elegant girl in front of her made a smile she couldn't really classify as either deferential or sad.

"They're all right." Hanna assured her. "They escaped the city shortly before the Soviets got there and are now with some family in Denmark. I'll probably join them once the situation calms down a little."

Simone smiled and glanced at Maria.

"You see? Everyone has a story here and share them. That's how we take care of each other."

"I see…" Maria whispered, still trying to collect her thoughts. Simone, on the other hand, kept with her offensive.

"So tells us! How did you know? Was your father a soldier or something?"

Those girls seemed friendly enough, but she wasn't quite yet ready to trust them with the truth about her and her father. But, truth be told, although her father did taught her the theory, she'd gained the practice through another source altogether.

"No, it wasn't that." She said, supporting her head over her hand. "My first BDM grouping was centered in Dresden, you see? We had a machine shop there where they repaired several types of vehicles, including tanks. They had a shortage of personnel some months ago and my grouping transferred people there to help out."

"They did that?" Simone seemed surprised. Usually the BDM strained away from all types of industrial work, especially when it dealt with weaponry. That wasn't a woman's job according to the organization. Big farms, like Baderberg, were seen as a different thing altogether.

"Yes. I guess things were already pretty desperate already back then. At first we didn't do anything that interesting, we just went around serving as pickets and secretaries, but I knew something about engines and transmissions and I had some knowledge about what a tank was. One day someone remembered to put me helping out the machinists and I ended up really loving the job." Maria shrugged. "The factory is destroyed now. Burned to the ground."

"You've lost friends in the bombings, didn't you?" Hanna asked, her voice a whisper and her tone contained but still letting out a hint of sadness.

For a moment, Maria was utterly unable to talk. She wanted to answer, to explain what it meant to her having lost those people, her colleagues, her friends… But nothing came out. She felt her eyes aching and wetness forming in the corners.

She had to answer with a nod.

Gently the two girls held her hands.

"You don't need to carry that weight alone anymore." Hanna said.

"We help each other." Simone added.

Now Maria was really at a loss, both of what to say and of what to feel. Those girls were offering her their friendship, a helping hand in dealing with the dark ghost she had inside her. But, still, her natural paranoia told her to play smart, to thank them but keep the distance for a while longer.

Fortunately for her, the trumpet sounded once again in that moment. All the girls in the mess hall started to move frantically to clean the tables. Breakfast time was over.

"Seems that we have to get back to work." Hanna said. She got up, holding her plate. She squeezed Maria's shoulder gently, offering her a warm smile before turning away. On the other hand, Simone acted in a much more extroverted manner.

"Well, looks like we'll have to postpone the rest of the conversation." She said while getting up. "I'll try to see if I have a little free time to help you and the others out in the hangar. Meanwhile hold on in the there, all right?"

"I will." Maria moaned, barely noticing she was still sited while everyone else moved around her in a hurry.

Simone smiled at her, apparently satisfied with her reply, and then moved away. Suddenly alone, Maria allowed herself to sigh. She would have to think this conversation through later. For now her mind was still too confused, the clashing of emotions almost overbearing.

At the moment, though, she had to get back to work, and preferably without getting late or her team would think she was slacking on her duty. Suddenly assuming her usual confident self, she got up and grabbed her tableware. After placing it in the sink she started running to the hangar.


	6. Artisanal Engineering

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

In truth there are things one cannot find in time to finish his own projects, or that for some reason doesn't fit the story and only hamper it in the end. Narrative, turns out, is an exercise in compromise about what helps to further it and what only drags it down. In all honesty I probably took a few too much liberties about the workings of the BDM in this piece. And yet I regret nothing.

**Anglerfish Team:**

Driver – Meike Reinhard

Loader – Ysabelle Ackerman

* * *

VI

ARTISANAL ENGINEERING

At first Schon seemed to have no qualms in sparing either personal or parts from the farming complex meager depositories. Maria could only rationalize that the local leader had her orders and, like any good Party member, would not shy from fulfilling them to the best of her capabilities.

On the other hand the fact remained that the country needed those tanks back into service, fast. Germany was losing the war, there was no other way to look at it. Although she was fed by Goebbels' propaganda like everyone else Maria still knew how to think. She could thank her father for that. As he told her once: "truth is the first casualty in any war". And the lies of the State never rang as true as they did at that stage.

And yet she still found herself thinking about how many of her compatriots still ignored that unmistakable reality. Indeed the Reich had managed to win a succession of campaigns when it all begun in 1939 and 1940, and spearhead through Africa and Asia shortly after. Then everything came crashing down.

Maria started to notice that reality when her father returned from Russia, crippled. Then there was Stalingrad, Kursk, the inevitable Soviet push, the landings in Italy and France, the Ardennes, the firebombings…

Now the enemy was closing in to Berlin, the heart of the Greater Germany promised not so long ago. And yet the propagandists still vociferated eloquently about the plans in store to counter-attack and the way the enemies would be soundly defeated at the gates of Berlin, driven back to their homelands to never return. And Maria deeply wanted to believe those lies, not because she still held any faith in the Party, but because she loved her Fatherland, her people, and she dreaded the suffering it would have to endure at the hands of the invaders, especially the Soviets.

But, alas, she could not. Unfortunately for her she was far too smart for that and her father educated her quite well. The deceit was simply too evident to her. And has a girl there was little she could do to change anything anyhow.

So Maria decided to move on, steady in the path to disgrace, and perform her duty like everyone else. And working with the tanks allowed her to help in ways much more direct that what most women in her country and time were allowed to. She had to embrace the opportunity she was given to do something truly worthwhile to the war effort and which was, in a way, fun. Put simply, the big machines of death were a joy to work with, so complex and ingenious. It was extremely gratifying to put them together and then see them moving and roaring and shaking like if as though they were alive.

The first thing Maria had to do was to make a list of priorities and organize workgroups. She started with the tanks themselves. They were seven at the beginning. The _Panzer_ IV, the StuG III (technically an assault gun, but who was really checking?), two M3 Mediums, two _Panzer_ 38(t)s and finally, and to her complete surprise, a Japanese-built Type 89, probably something brought from the other side of the world so the _Wehrmacht_ could test how their allies stood up against the American armor and its own. Most probably not very well as the thing's armor seem to be almost paper-thin in comparison to its Western equivalents.

Maria quickly realized that there were several parts missing, although the most important factor was the state of the batteries. They were all drained out with the exception of one of the 38(t)s. Because of this she decided to prioritize the paired units. If she dismantled one of each in order to repair the other she could save a whole lot in time and request files for spares.

There was no crane available, so moving the heavy parts had to be done with a set of ropes and pulleys and human strength. From time to time a tractor would be requested from the plantations so they could move the tanks around.

It didn't take long for Maria to have a hefty crowd working with her at certain parts of the day. Those girls couldn't be with her constantly though. There was still work to be done in the crop fields and in the stables, and the complex wasn't allowed to pass on its own schedules in spite of the additional assignment. Trucks were still arriving several times a week to retrieve food supplies destined to the German Army, at the time already lacking in every imaginable item.

Because she wasn't allowed to skip on her own schedule and because she couldn't account for the larger groups except for certain periods of the day, Maria had to create a smaller core team to stay with her at all times so they could move forward with the smaller things. A young girl named Ysabelle Ackermann was especially enthusiastic and with a surprising amount of knowledge regarding armored vehicles. Once Maria noticed it she realized she had to know from where did Ysabelle got her facts. She didn't recognize the girl from her last assignment and as far as she could tell there weren't much more plants accepting girls in their ranks.

Maria approached Ysabelle during a short interval, when both of them went outside to catch some fresh air. Even with the gates open wide the stink of oil and welded metal could become overwhelming.

"So, tell-"

"I have a-"

The two girls stood staring at each other for a few seconds.

"Please, go on."

"What were you saying?"

The second time was more awkward than the first. Maria decided to insist immediately to ensure there wouldn't be a third time.

"You have a question, Ackerman?"

The other girl nodded.

"Yes. I was curious but I need to ask you…" Ysabelle made a pause, slightly nervous it seemed. "Are you by any means related with the _panzer_ ace Marco Nitzschmann?"

Maria audibly gasped at the question. She really didn't expect to be associated with her brother, much less as quickly as that girl did. Ysabelle seemed to be on par with what was happening in the war. Well, most people were interested anyhow, as its end would decided their fates and the Ministry of Propaganda assured people would know at least their own version of it. Even so a girl knowing such small details was really surprising.

Once again Maria was finding someone who managed to disarm her with surprising swiftness.

"Yeah… He's my older brother."

Although she herself wasn't the most sociable person, Maria had met more people than she could remember in her life, and worked in close proximity to many of them. Even so she couldn't really remember anyone who'd made a 180 as quickly as Ysabelle did. In one moment she was the nervous shy girl who was afraid of making a simple question, in the next she was yelping excitedly and jumping to hug Maria.

"Really! That's so cool! I knew it! You're an heir of true heroes!"

"Now, now, let's stay calm, all right?" The sudden friendliness was a little too much for Maria at the moment. The other girl gave a step back, a huge smile on her face.

"Oh, you had something to ask me, right?"

"Yes. I was curious how you got to know so much about tanks."

The question seemed to drain away the girls' enthusiasm. She glanced away for a moment, before turning back at Maria.

"Well… here and there." She put her hands behind her back and started scrapping the ground with the tip of her shoe.

"Here… and there?" How could it be if most information was censored in that time and age? "Really?"

"Well… It's kind of a secret of mine."

Maria crossed her arms and sighed. She really didn't want to unnerve the girl more than necessary, it didn't felt right. On the other hand Ysabelle did have some uncommon knowledge for someone of her age and gender.

"I need to know." She tried to smile. Something else came to her mind at the moment, something Simone had said a few days before. "And don't worry, your secret will be safe with me. After all, we take care of each other here, isn't it?"

Ysabelle smiled back at her.

"Yeah, some of the girls really try to make life easier for others. Don't know what Schon thinks about it, though."

Of course they did. The war as at an end after all. Some of the more sensible people realized it would be better to make friends and let things take their due course without much fuss. Others, though, opted for the exact opposite, and didn't even hesitate in delivering anyone they found suspicious to the secret police. Unfortunately that kind of people was usually placed in command positions and Maria hadn't managed to read Schon well enough to realize what kind of leader she really was.

"I just need a first-aide." Maria admitted. "And you're the only person around who knows enough to fill the post."

That seemed to do the trick. Once again Ysabelle's eyes were filled with that shimmering enthusiasm from a few minutes ago.

"Me, the aide of Marco Nitzschmann's sister? Really?"

"Yes."

"Will you keep it a secret if I tell you?" She was ready to open herself, but she wasn't stupid and couldn't avoid holding some reserves.

"Sure." And she meant it. After all, how did she herself learn much of what she knew? It hadn't been through the proper channels for sure.

"You promise?"

Maria nodded at the girl, suddenly noticing she was out of things to say.

"Well, I've read these magazines and books, you see?" They drifted to a nearby cement draining tube, where they sat while Ysabelle explained how she'd learned so much about that subject. With a low voice, almost whispering, she told Maria she managed to get reading material from the _Wehrmacht_ and even some things from the United Kingdom and the United States. She could read English quite well, it seemed.

"I'm really passionate about tanks and what's going on in the war." She explained at a certain point.

Ysabelle didn't wanted to get into too much detail, probably to not compromise her suppliers, but it seemed that she'd lost contact with them since she was sent to Baderberg by her parents, to "keep her away from harm", as Ysabelle put it. Maria had no way to know it, evidently, but through the other girl's words it seemed that her parents cared greatly for her, and even tolerated her strange hobbies to a certain point.

"You won't really turn me to Schon, will you?" She asked at the end of her account, almost sheepishly.

"Why should I do that? You're my best mechanic, for starters. And it would be wrong to do it, anyhow." For a moment, Maria contemplated telling her how she herself learned what she did, but in the end she thought it was enough conversation for the moment. They really needed to get back to work. Without Maria the girls could be starting to slack of or running out of things they could do by themselves.

Maria got to her feet and wagged the skirt. "Very well, then. Your secret is safe with me, Ackermann." She told her. "Let's go back to work?"

They then walked together to the hangar, where without Maria things were starting to fall apart pretty much as she had expected.

Maria was also quick to realize that regardless of urgency of those repairs, there were some girls the different sectors of Baderberg weren't willing to dispense, regardless of how competent they seemed, or probably due to it. As usual in BDM groupings like that one, there was a healthy amount of competition among the different work teams and no one wanted to lose the best assets. As so and in spite of Maria's pleas, she was usually left with the girls who couldn't adapt to the other types of work.

One of them, Meike Reinhard, was constantly found asleep inside the tanks. The cute little sob usually excused herself saying she had low blood pressure but it didn't helped to lessen Maria's exasperation a single bit. Maria found her taking one of her naps in the gunner's position of one of the 38(t)s, right after she snapped at the remaining girls to go back to work. Having finished their previous orders, they'd clustered around the _Panzer_ IV to talk about the boys of their homelands. And now Maria had to reorganize them. Fortunately, though, Ysabelle's newfound enthusiasm helped things move fast and smoothly. It made Maria feel that she had found the right aide in that odd girl.

As promised _Führerin_ Pförter sent a car to deliver Maria's meager possessions a few days after she'd left her there. It was little more than her spare clothes and a small Bible, but it was what she had been allowed to bring from home anyhow. It made her think on how much she missed her father and her brother, if not exactly her mother. The driver was also delivered a list of all the parts Maria had deemed necessary to repair the remaining vehicles. After two weeks there wasn't any sign of them yet, but promises regarding the delivery kept being made by the Reich's logistical services, so it was a matter of waiting to see.

Meanwhile life went on as usual in the Baderberg farming complex.


	7. Undisclosed Desires

VII

UNDISCLOSED DESIRES

The engine surged to life, making a loud crackle flood the large but still limited space of the hangar. The driver pulled the control lever and the armored vehicle rolled forward, clearing from the line of half-disassembled hulls and the gates beyond. Once it reached the open space in front of the hangar and halted all hands started to clap in excitement.

That was the first true measure of success the work team has had since it all started almost three weeks before. Sure, they had already made controlled tests with the engines, both linked and unlinked to the transmissions, but seeing one of the tanks actually moving on its own, roaring like a powerful beast released from its cage, was something else entirely.

Even Maria couldn't contain a satisfied grin as she traded glances with the other three girls inside the now idling _Panzer _38(t). She had decided that would be the first machine to be made operational. Although the beloved _Panzer_ IV would have been her first choice in any other situation, she had more parts available for the 38(t) since the beginning, as well as the only working battery, and the parts for the remaining tanks weren't available until they'd arrived just a few days ago.

The inside of the tank was cramped and hot, and it was hard to imagine how four men much larger than those teenager girls would fit inside. Then again it was a machine that was supposed to be simple, practical and cheap. In spite of it all, Maria actually liked the 38(t) a lot. It had an almost comical-looking conical turret set over a boxy hull and four large wheels on each side. If there was a tank in the world one could describe as 'cute', the 38(t) would be it.

"So, everything's running smoothly?" Anja asked, glancing at Maria from the radio operator's post. Maria was right behind her, in the loader's position, inside the turret.

"It does seem so." Maria peeked through the hatch, giving a good look at her surroundings. Everything seemed to be still attached and the gray smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe flowed normally. She went back inside. "It seems we did a good job on this one."

"Not bad for a backwater farming complex run by a bunch of girls, huh?"

Maria shook her head in consent.

"Very well! What about taking it for a ride, then?" Anja smirked at her two minions, Monica, in the gunner's position, and Ursel, the driver. They smiled back at her, but Maria was less excited with the idea.

"I don't think we should-"

"Why? Do you distrust your own work?"

"It's not that…"

The vice-leader of the grouping straightened in her seat and pointed at an imaginary point beyond the steel plating in front of her.

"Then we're set. Take it to the outer fields, Ursel."

"All right!" The shy girl seemed much more confident as the driver of the tank and lost no time in moving the levers to propel the ten-ton machine forward. Both she and Anja knew how to operate an agricultural tractor and operating a tank wasn't that different, so Maria had gave them some basic instructions on how to drive the military machine. And at least Ursel seemed to be getting the gist of it.

"We should really test it more thoroughly before we start messing around." Maria told Anja, almost shouting due to the rumbling of the engine, placed right behind the fighting compartment.

"Ah, don't be a killjoy! If you say this thing is ready, I'll believe you." She then took a dried sweet potato out of her breast pocket and gave it a bite. Why did she kept food in there Maria couldn't explain.

The tank kept rolling, having left the buildings cluster well behind. It was now entering a set of rolling hills in the outer edge of Baderberg. To their right the crop fields belonging to the complex spread over a flat meadow, the two working tractors bawling as they moved along the dirt trails. Most of the girls stopped what they were doing when the tank passed by, curious to see it finally working on its own.

Inside the combat vehicle, though, the girls couldn't really notice their distant comrades or the beautiful landscape. Only Ursel was really glancing to the outside and did so through a small slot right in front of her.

"So say, Maria." Anja started, turning back at the technician. "Have you ever thought about taking one of these things into combat yourself?"

For a moment Maria almost couldn't believe in what Anja had just said. She surreptitious tried to see the other girl's expressions. Ursel was absolutely focused in her driving, her face unreadable for once. Monica was leaned back against her seat, glancing back at Maria through the corner of her eye. They seemed to be in union with whatever was Anja's goal with that conversation.

"Why are you even asking something like that?" That was all Maria could muster as a reply. In front of her Anja finished eating her sweet potato and leaned her face against her free hand, seemingly disappointed.

"Because I'd love to." She finally said. It was an unbelievable statement, especially coming from someone of Anja's rank. It went against everything they had been thought in the BDM. Maria asked herself if Schon even imagined her second-in-command was going around saying that kind of things to the girls she was responsible for. Simply put, there was no way the leader could be backing Anja's initiative there.

"But you can't. It's not the role of a girl to fight in the war!"

"And yet you seem to know more about tanks than most soldiers." Anja rebutted. "You know that soon it will make no difference whatsoever. Even we the girls will have to fight if we want to survive."

"What do you mean?"

It was Monica who replied this time, Anja remaining silent but with that strange expression on her face, like if she was evaluating every single word coming out of Maria's mouth.

"We're losing the war, there's no doubt about that by now. What do you think will happen to us if the Soviets ever put their hands on us? Can you imagine?"

"I won't allow that." Anja continued. "When the time comes I will fight for my friends and all the other girls in Germany. If I manage to gain them even a few days, even at the cost of my own life, then it will be worthwhile."

Bit by bit the tank slowed down and finally came to a halt.

"We're here." Ursel told Anja.

"All right." She replied before resuming her conversation with Maria. "If the opportunity ever comes, would you like to join me, Nitzschmann? Help us protect our country and our people?"

How could she realistically reply to that? Of course she fantasized about being able to defend the Fatherland. She did so ever since she was old enough to understand what her father did for a living. And she felt unimaginable proud when he triumphantly returned from Poland and France like a conquering hero. She'd imaged she could join the war and fight alongside him, cursing her luck for having been born a girl more than a few times.

But when reality came crashing down with its ugly face she decided she really didn't want to take any part in any of it. All the knowledge she'd gathered with her father, with her books, and with her work in Dresden, she would live happy if she'd never have to really test its limits. Because that would mean seeing other youngsters suffer like those she saw in her hometown. Her friends.

"I-I…"

Anja waved at her, slightly annoyed. "I'll give you some days to think it through, if you want to." She told Maria. "I'll just ask you to think really hard about it in the meantime."

For a few seconds, Maria tried not to look directly at any of the other girls. She could feel they were disappointed by her reaction. But the fact remained that their stance regarding the whole issue wasn't at all anything like what she'd seen in other groupings. Those girls were actually fierce and wanted to make a difference. Maybe it was despair, fueled by the fear of the raping and the killings, and the unwillingness to abandon the Fatherland and its people to the enraged invader.

She could understand it, but-

"Hey Nitzschmann, do something else for now." Anja's words brought her out of her digression. "Reach for the compartment under your seat and take one of the rounds out."

Maria did what she was asked for. This time the fact that she found herself with a 3,7cm armor-piercing round in her hands didn't even registered as surprising.

"How did you?" She had to ask.

"I've made a special request, and convinced Schon to pull some strings. We might receive a few more for the other tanks in two or three days."

There was really nothing she could do or say, so she went along with it for the moment.

"I suppose you'll want to fire this?" Anja simply nodded back at her so Maria slammed the shell in the Skoda A7 main gun's breech. She saw a large smirk opening in Monica's face right away.

"Now, how do I aim this?" She asked. Maria gave her a quick run-up of the procedures, to which Monica made a few more questions before feeling herself comfortable with what they were about to do.

When she felt ready Monica looked through the aim sight. The tank was stationed in the bottom of valley between two stumpy flat hills. Green grass spread all around and there was not a single soul in sight except the crew of the lonely war machine. The target for that practice firing was one of the sparse trees growing here and there, located almost one thousand meters in front of the tank.

"I have a target." Monica warned, prompting the other girls to put their fingers in their ears. The gunner wouldn't have that chance and would have to simply endure the gunshot.

POW!

It wasn't really that loud, at least when compared with the bang of the larger guns. Still it was enough to echo across the landscape and rattle the tank a little. The shot went too wide and slammed into the flank of the hill, several yards to the left of the target tree.

"_Wunderbar_!" Excited with the flawless firing, Anja turned at Maria. "How many shots are usually fired in basic training?"

"Six, if I'm not mistaken." Maria had to admit that even she was now somewhat thrilled with the situation. As far as excitement went nothing could beat a tank shooting at things, at least in her opinion.

"Shall we fire five more, then? We should also test the other tanks this way once you get them ready, don't you think?" Anja glanced at Maria, always with that intriguing smirk in her face.

Maria patted the top of the main gun's breech, seemingly considering the issue for a moment.

"You're right." She conceded. "We really should do it."

"We don't want the soldiers to go around in untested equipment, isn't it?" Ursel asked from her post. They were right on that point, Maria had to agree. So she smiled back at the other girls and nodded.


	8. The Mk IV

VIII

THE MK IV

"Oh, it looks so cute like this!"

Maria was entering the hangar, after a quick leave to the bathroom, when she stumbled on Ysabelle walking back from the _Panzer_ IV, now fully restored, to behold her work. At first she couldn't get what was making the other girl so excited, until she glanced at the tank's turret and saw the pink drawing of a cartoonish fish painted over the dark-grey steel.

Shaking her head, she approached Ysabelle.

"What is that?" She asked her. Ysabelle turned to her and was momentarily intimidated by the 'command face' Maria was putting, before returning to her excited demeanor.

"It's an anglerfish!" Was the energized reply. "It gives personality to the tank and makes it look cuter." She turned at the engine of death right besides them. "Don't you think, _Führerin_ Nitzschmann?"

Maria looked at the painting once again. For a moment she considered cleaning it away, but then she rebutted that thought. She to admit, it did looked kind of cute and broke the grey monotony of the current paint scheme. They would have to erase it later on, but it couldn't hurt if it stayed for now.

"I guess…" She crossed her arms, allowing a faint smile to spread across her face. "Is it fueled?"

"Yeah! And ready to go! But who will crew it?"

Now that was a good question... Glancing around Maria noticed the girls in today's work group were gathering close by, to finally see the _Panzer_ IV coming to life. Of course they have already tested the engine and the batteries, but nothing could beat seeing twenty tons of metal rolling out of the hangar with the engine growling at full force. They had already seen the 38(t) and the M3 do it, and it didn't seem to be getting any older.

The smile in Maria's face widened when she saw Hanna and Simone among the group around her. They returned the smile looking ever so supportive. _They really came to help me more often… It feels good._

Time to pay them back with some real excitement.

"Opel, Tammeke!" She called out. "Let's bring it out?"

The two girls came closer while the others made no effort to hide their disappointment. Some of them couldn't really complain that much. The M3, due to its own outdated design, required quite a hefty crew to be properly tested, and although Anja and her minions weren't there today some of the other girls already had the opportunity to ride a tank. Hanna and Simone didn't.

What reminded her...

"Want to come along, too?" She asked Ysabelle.

The girl clasped her hands together, almost incredulous at the offer.

"Can I? Really?" Maria simply nodded back, and then Ysabelle let out an excited yelp and embraced her, before turning at the tank. "Let's go then!" And proceeded to climb the vehicle and enter through one of the open turret hatches.

The other girls giggled joyfully at that exuberant demonstration of enthusiasm. Morale was indeed very high.

"So, what shall we do?" Hanna finale managed to ask.

"Well, we'll need a basic crew to do this." Maria replied after giving it some consideration. "First we'll need a commander and a driver. That's how basic as it can get."

"Oh, I'll be the commander!" Simone quickly yelped, raising a hand. Beside her Hanna couldn't help but chuckle.

"That'll make me the driver, then." She stated.

While Simone climbed to the turret, Maria explained Hanna the basics on how to drive the tank. The diver's position was in the front of the hull, to the left. To move it around the driver had to operate two levers, one on each side, which in their turn controlled the tracks.

"Do you understand?" Maria asked afterwards.

"I think I do. It's not different from the tractors we had back in Elbing."

"Great! Let's get this started then!"

It took the experienced leader of the restoration group only a couple seconds to get in the gunner's position, just beside the commander, a very pleased Simone.

"Very well! Hit the gas, Opel!"

"_Gut_!" Hanna pressed her thumb against the ignition button and the engine flawlessly rumbled to life. If you gave them the proper love, the Maybach really were great engines, Maria thought.

"Hey, Maria, isn't there something the commander should say to start the march?" Simone inquired.

Maria glanced away for a moment. She'd never really give much thought to the issue. After all and as far as she knew once on the field the crews simply did what they needed to stay alive and complete their missions. Although there was an expression some commanders did used when in the heat of the battle or, in calmer occasions, just for the gist of it.

"_Panzer vor_?"

The current commander of the _Panzer_ seemed to enjoy the idea.

"Very well!" She pulled half of her body out of the commander's hatch and pointed forward, along the line of the main gun. "Very well, Hanna!" She started before yelling at the top of her lungs. "PANZER VOR!"

Hanna promptly obeyed, hurling the tank in a slow march… backwards.

Reacting without thinking, Maria reached for Hanna's shoulder and spoke in her commanding tone. "Halt."

The driver immediately pulled both levers to the center, stopping the tank just a few centimeters shy of the rear wall of the hangar. The engine sobbed at the sudden halt, but kept working nonetheless.

"That didn't go well." Hanna said, apparently unfazed by the near disaster.

"Let's just guarantee it won't happen again, shall we?" Maria said, her expression having changed to a compromising smile.

"Yes." After engaging the first gear, the right one this time, Hanna gently pulled both control levers and the tank rolled forward, jerking the three girls inside the turret.

"This is not very comfortable." Ysabelle observed.

"It isn't supposed to." The answer was made almost absently-mindedly as Maria was now occupied looking around the fighting chamber, to see if everything was in order now that the tank was finally moving on its own. For the moment the whole thing seemed to be working just fine.

The tank was now passing through the open gates, observed by a small crowd of young girls now silent and quite weary about what could happen next. The deep rumbling of the Maybach superimposed by the whining of the steel tracks followed the _Panzer_ as an aura of pure noise and sinister possibilities.

Now that they were in the open Simone felt like trying to command once again. She asked something to Maria, but she was unable to listen to it among the echoing rumbling of the petrol engine inside the fighting compartment. Holding the headphones for the intercom as if fearing they would fall Simone came closer and repeated her question, this time in a louder tone.

"Say, to tell the driver where to go we simply use this, right?"

She was pointing at the small microphone in her hand. Maria nodded. The thing was linked to the internal communications system of the tank and allowed the commander to coordinate the crew.

"Got it!" She approached the mike to her lips. "Driver, turn left!"

Hanna promptly obeyed, but then they had a hitch. While it seemed somewhat easy to do with the tank stopped, moving the control levers was actually a lot harder when the machine was moving and the clutch and transmission had to cog while spinning and converting the engine's power into actual movement. The left lever actually got stuck when Hanna tried to move it. She had to use both arms to push it back. When it gave in she was thrown back with a yelp.

The tank went into a step turn which hurled the girls in the turret to their right, Simone crumbling on top of Ysabelle and Maria forced to hold to the gun's breech. The engine roared furiously and then the vehicle rocked again as it hit a deep ditch at the edge of the crop fields.

The impact rattled the crew and brought the march into a grinding halt. But the engine was still working and moving the tracks. Maria could feel the whole machine slide as it dug itself into the mud. Once again she reached for Hanna's shoulder.

"Kill the engine." She said softly. Hanna obeyed, bringing an uneasy silence to the fighting compartment. Now that the tank was secured Maria glanced around.

"Are you all right? No one bitted the tongue?"

Everyone seemed uninjured, regardless of the violence of the incident. Simone, though was clenching her thighs, her face a mask of shock.

"I-I'm sorry." She yelped. "I didn't want to…"

"It's all right." Maria told her, the commanding side of her taking control once again, this time to reassure the girl. "It probably felt worse than it really is."

And then she opened the hatch to face the true extension of the disaster.


	9. Meike

IX

MEIKE

It was actually worse than she'd thought. Once Maria jumped out of the tank and got some distance she managed to confirm her worse fears. The tank was indeed stuck in a steep slope with its left track buried in a blend of overturned mud and smashed grass. The opposite slope of the ditch, raising just a few centimeters away from the tip of the main gun's muzzle negated any possibility of getting out easily. She sighed and rubbed her forehead while she tried to think on a way to take the tank out of there.

The rest of the crew remained close by, surrounded by the crowd which formed after the disaster unfolded. Hanna and Simone were wearing somber expressions and Ysabelle simply looked sad for them. There was simply no point in assailing them, Maria realized. She already knew how easily, and many times inevitably, rookie crews made mistakes with their tanks. If someone had to be held responsible it was herself for not taking that simple fact into consideration. But then again she'd never had such a responsibility over her shoulders before. And now the lack of sleep and excessive workload were starting to wear down her discernment.

"Someone bring a tractor here." She demanded, guessing some horsepower would be required to liberate the stranded tank. One of the girls in the nearby crowd started to run to the tractor's garage.

"Why do you need it?" A calm and collected voice asked, coming from behind Maria. She turned and stumbled upon the short black-haired girl who made her exasperate so many times for the last few weeks.

"Meike?"

The girl, as usual, seemed the exact opposite of the type of woman the BDM wanted to educate. She had that drowsy look, her eyelids always narrowed, and apparently she didn't really care for anything. She would work if hard-pressed by the other girls and Maria kept her around because not only did she need as many hands as she could get but also because, in truth, she couldn't imagine what else Meike would do if no-one forced her to work.

"The track is simply stuck. You can get it out if you do it with a little care." The drowsy girl said, matter-of-factly. Maria glanced back at the tank, and then glared at Meike.

"And how would you know that?"

The short girl shrugged.

"It happened all the time back in my family's farm with the tractors, and keeps happening all the time around here. I've gotten used to dislodge them."

For a moment Maria couldn't really believe what she was hearing. But then again, she had been there for what, three weeks? What did she really knew about the local habits?

"Really? Would you care to show us?"

Meike shrugged again. "If I have to…"

Slowly she walked to the tank with Maria going after her.

"You know how to drive this?" Maria asked from the gunner's post, just behind Meike.

"I've also helped rebuilt these things, remember?" The drowsy girl didn't give Maria any time to reply and started the engine without hesitation. The Maybach in the back of the tank coughed twice and roared back to life.

"Can you take the gun out of my way?" Meike asked. Maria complied, moving the handle which controlled the turret mechanism. She decided to turn the gun 180º through the left, pointing it backwards.

Meike then started to move the levers, first with hesitation, but as soon as she realized how the tank was reacting to her controls she started to act with greater confidence.

At first Maria didn't really realize what Meike was doing, the tank jerking back and forth. But then she noticed she was actually trying to release the left track while also ironing out the mud both ahead and behind the tank.

And then she made her move, locking the left track and rotating with the help of the right one. The _Panzer_ slid to the bottom of the ditch, aligning with its axis along the way down. At least the track wasn't stuck anymore, but there were other problems.

"How will we get out now?" Maria asked, half-jesting, half-serious.

"Brute force," was Meike's plain response. Maria had a second to think those words through before the driver sent the tank into full throttle forward. Some meters ahead she made a steep turn to the left, the tank having gained enough momentum to climb the slope and emerge over the top, back into the driving area. It turned left once again, approaching the crowd of girls watching in awe as Meike saved another poor stranded vehicle.

The _Panzer_ halted very closely to the place where it had got stuck. The driver left the engine idling and got out, Maria jumping from the turret right behind her.

"That was incredible!" She told the drowsy girl. "I think you should be the new driver for this thing."

Meike opened her mouth for a moment and then closed it, apparently dismissing the reply she had in mind. She ended up simply shrugging, which seemed to be her standard answer to almost everything.

While some girls went to see the tank, others approached the pair who performed that extraordinary retrieval. Among them were Hanna and Simone.

"Well, _Fraulein_ Reinhard here did make an incredible stunt." Hanna said, evidently impressed by what she'd just saw. "But is there anything else I can do?" The girl was clearly devastated by the earlier misstep. Maria concluded that she would have to do something to cheer her up.

"Don't worry. I've got something cool for you!" She exclaimed when the solution formed in her head all of a sudden, she almost shouting at herself why she didn't thought about it before.

Two hours later a large bang rumbled across the improvised firing range in the outer edge of the farming complex as the 75mm KwK 40 gun fired for the first time in a very long time.

"Oh my, this was so fun!" Hanna exclaimed, still pressing the trigger. The other girls in the turret didn't seem so excited, their ears still ringing. Meike remained silent in the driver's seat, always so unfazed with what happened around her.

"Yes. It's always exciting to fire the main gun." Maria agreed. She peeked over the open side hatch and glanced at the distance through a pair of binoculars. "And it seems you actually fared very well!"

"Did I hit the target?"

"No. But you were very close." Indeed it was close. One of the rusty barrels Anja had arranged to serve as targets for the testing of the guns had been knocked down by the impact of the shell just a few meters away. "Not bad for a first time. You might be a natural at this, but we need more firings to confirm."

"Then let's fire again, shall we?"


	10. Boy's Stuff

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

I do realize that many things I've done thus far with this story might be somewhat controversial, but I think now we'll have the most radical departure from the original material yet. As I've said before, my intent is to make this as much a piece of historical fiction as it is fanfiction, as so I felt the need to mix things up a little. Let's see what comes out of this.

**Hippo Team:**

Commander - Erwin Morgenstern

Loader – Caesar Sultzer

* * *

X

BOY'S STUFF

The two teenage boys were peeking over a hill, a few hundred meters away from the center of the action. Their bicycles had been hidden in a small pack of bushes, at the bottom of the hill, a place no-one would think of searching, much less the girls who ruled that region. After all, girls weren't into doing dirty work.

Or so they thought until they discovered that there were girls in their age range who could actually make cereal fields grow and use them to feed the _Wehrmacht_. Now, though, it seemed their range of abilities had expanded even more, further into surprising new territories.

"I've told you it was them!" The brunette boy told the other, before both winced when a new detonation blasted across the fields. They had heard the blasts two times before, during their usual tours across the region. The first time they'd actually though it could be the Soviets, although the newscasts kept telling the enemy was still too far away. The authorities in their village told them there was nothing important going on around them, which only deepened the mystery.

And then they heard the very same blasts once again a few days later. It was then that they decided to see if the BDM girls in the farming complex had something to do with it. As it seemed, their hunch was right.

"But what is their idea?" The blonde boy with a military hat spat back at his friend. His blue eyes were still examining the tanks lined between two hills, firing against the farthest peak.

"Maybe we should ask them, Erwin."

Now there was something he would prefer not to do. Erwin hated to have to ask those girls for clarifications. They were quite snarky at him and his friend, especially that vice-leader of theirs, Anja. Most importantly, though…

"We really shouldn't, Caesar…" He muttered. Then one of the armored vehicles down there fired once again, the flat and turret-less one Erwin had been eyeing with special attention since they'd arrived there.

"Has that ever stopped us before?" Caesar retorted with a grin. Erwin couldn't help but chuckle at the truth of the statement.

"Well, Schon doesn't seem to be around. It can't hurt."

"And you'll get to see Anja." The dark-haired boy declared while getting up.

Erwin opened his mouth to give the proper reply to such an outrageous statement, but Caesar was already running down the slope, so he hurried to follow.

* * *

Although the main gun of the StuG III seemed to be working just fine, the shells were still going too wide. Maria winced at the fact. The assault gun had to be in proper conditions when she finally delivered it to the crew who will have to use it in combat. Although she'd already cycled the girls who seemed to be good at gunnery, like Hanna who had all the traits to become an exceptional shooter if she ever had the proper training, the firing conditions of the thing, with its fixed main gun, seemed different enough from the tanks to negate any acceptable results.

She'd still have to find someone who could give her proper results with the StuG, or then admit something was off with either the gun or the optics and dismantle everything again. Such perspective didn't cheer her up a single bit.

"Are you surprised, Nitzschmann?" Anja asked her.

Maria turned at her. The vice-commander of the grouping was standing just besides her, in the back of the flatbed Boxer truck. Both of the girls were leaning over the driver's cabin, using their binoculars to observe the firing range. On that day they'd brought along the StuG III, the _Panzer_ IV and the _Panzer _38(t). The M3 was kept in the hangar. As far as Maria could tell, the American tank was in perfect fighting conditions and there was no need to spend more fuel with it.

Now the more complex German machines were trickier to deal with. Although she had to admit to herself that the small Czech machine was there simply because Anja loved to look at it.

"With the issues with the StuG?" She replied dryly, glancing at the impromptu targets in the distance. Once again she clenched her teeth when she noticed how intact the StuG's targets were.

"No! I was talking about your stay here. I've heard you managed to make some friends. That's a good thing, right?"

"I guess…." Maria's gaze drifted from the distant hills to the _Panzer _IV in the farthest edge of the firing line. Simone was standing in the commander's hatch, while Ysabelle was sitting over the engine cover, talking about something with the other girl. Hanna and Meike were inside the tank itself, the first standing in the gunners post and the later in the driver's seat, probably trying to get some shut-eye, what should be honestly impossible with all the noise around them.

"You need friends to get through with life, you know? I know what happened to you, and it's good to see you getting close to other people."

The first thing crossing Maria's mind was that Anja had nothing to do with that, but, then again, she did have a point. She felt better and looser since she'd began to talk more with the other girls. It was a good feeling,

She didn't digressed much more because Monica started calling for Anja. She was in the command hatch of the 38(t), observing the tests from the firing line, and seemed to have been alerted by something. The surrounding crew was shouting for the tank crews to cease fire.

"What is it?" Anja yelled back at Monica.

"Two idiots just stepped in the firing line!" Monica replied, pointing at the distance. Both Maria and Anja raised their binoculars to check. In fact two figures were now running to the tanks. Maria felt a shiver when she thought they could be Soviet scouts, but the feeling subsided when she realized they wouldn't be that stupid. Would they?

"Who are they?"

"Just two idiots from a nearby village…" Anja whimpered when she lowered her binoculars.

"You know them?"

"Unfortunatelly. They use to come here from time to time to see what we're doing and to mess up with the girls' heads. It's sad, really."

The boys were now close to the tanks and slowed down to a slower stride. One of them, a blonde young man with a military hat, asked something to one of the girls, and then they came closer to the truck from where Anja and Maria kept observing the scene.

"What you're doing here?" Erwin asked the sub-leader. "And how did you get these tanks?"

"You have such a nerve, Erwin!" Anja replied, a little more irritated than Maria expected. Apparently that was another local habit she wasn't aware of. "Didn't anyone conscript you already?"

"That's a very harsh thing to say, do you know that?" Erwin crossed his arms over his chest, also a little more infuriated than the situation called for. He then glanced at the girl beside Anja. "And who's this? A new recruit?"

The other boy leaned against the truck, on Maria's side, and smiled at her.

"Hi, there." He said. "I'm Caesar."

"Hi…" Maria muttered, without really know how to react. Meanwhile the argument between Anja and Erwin kept going, with the BDM girls gathering around to truck to watch.

"Well, this girl over here knows more about tanks than you will ever know." Anja declared.

"Oh, really? A girl?" The blonde boy seemed hurt in his pride. "Test me then."

The sub-leader pointed at the StuG III. "What's that called, then?"

Erwin looked back and forth.

"That's a _Panzer_." He snapped. Very justifiably Anja face palmed.

"They're ALL _Panzers_! You've got to be a bit more specific."

"But what are doing with them?"

"We're restoring them for the _Wehrmacht_. To defend the Fatherland." Straightening and crossing her arms, Anja looked incredibly proud of the fact and in control of herself for the first time in the last few minutes.

It was Caesar who decided to stop drooling at Maria and put some cold water in the boiling.

"Look _Fraulein_ Konigsberg, if that's the case can we help in any way?"

Anja raised a finger, evidently ready to spat something very unpleasant at him, but stopped when a sudden idea formed in her mind.

"Actually… There's something you can do," Her usual smirk returned to her face, "something my colleague Maria Nitzschmann here has been asking for quite some time and only two young men like you can do."

"Really?" Caesar retorted excitedly.

"I did?" Maria asked, confused. And then she noticed Anja was now showing her teeth. She'd launched the hook and the bait and the unaware fish had been quick to bite. Apparently more knowing of that girl's methods, Erwin simply sighed at that.

He was right, of course. Just a few minutes later the two boys were bare-chested and sweating while moving the unexpended heavy explosive rounds from the StuG to the Boxer truck serving as ammunition carrier. The girls stood around them, many of them sitting over the tanks, cheering and laughing at the boy's misfortune.

"You had to say it, didn't you?" Erwin knelt on the top of the vehicle to pass the shell to Caesar, who was in the ground.

"I didn't saw you saying no." Caesar replied while he walked to the nearby truck to deliver the projectile to the girl responsible for the cargo.

"Anja's not in a mood to get a 'no' for an answer." Erwin hunched over the hatch to receive another shell.

"Anyhow, Erwin, is _Fraulein_ Nitzschmann watching? I think I'm in quite a good shape, you know?"

The blonde boy looked quickly over the line of tanks, before turning his attention back at the hatch and the girl passing him the shells from the inside.

"_Nee_! She's talking with one of the crews it seems."

"Oh, man!"

Now pulling the shell up, Erwin couldn't help but moan at the weight of it. The tag marked it as an artillery round, almost seven kilos of deadly firepower in a compact package.

"These things are heavy!" He complained, turning to Anja, who was sitting in a small chair near the back of the StuG. "How did you manage to carry them around?"

"We used a bunch of girls to make a human chain." She replied, always smiling. "But today we have the chance of using just two young men. It's a great improvement in efficiency!"

Erwin simply stood where he was, over the tank's mudguard, gleaming at Anja with a 'are you kidding me?' expression. Then he shrugged and simply dropped the shell. Caesar was quick to sidestep and catch the round in mid-air, but the split-second of freefall was enough to make all the girls present gasp for air, as if a simple fall like that one could actually detonate the explosives inside.

The teenage boy, though, found Anja's momentary expression of horror absolutely adorable and smirked.

"I hate you…" She finally managed to say.


	11. Last Second Changes

XI

LAST SECOND CHANGES

By the end of the evening the two boys decided they've had enough of slave work and impressing teenage girls with their physical prowess, if nothing else, and went to retrieve their bicycles. Anja and Maria also decided to call it a day. It was time to bring the tanks back to the barn.

In the way back Anja thought it would be interesting to experiment some formations, see if the tanks could perform tactical maneuvers adequately. They've already did it a few times, and to Maria it seemed like a waste of fuel. After all the efficiency in maneuvering depended more on the crew's training than on the machine itself. But she decided to play along anyway.

The first attempts at moving in formation went pretty much as expected. Even with such a small squadron the girls kept getting lost and unsure about how to keep pace with each other, especially with the three machines having such different performance specs.

Surprisingly, though, after a few tries they've they were actually managing to make some basic formations, and they did so once more that day. It was surely the heavy discipline hammered into the girls kicking in. If she had the time and the authorization, Maria believed she could train them to perform at least well enough for parades and such.

Of course that the tanks would be taken from them in just a few days, so no need to dream too high.

Then sun was already setting when the girls killed the engines and started to abandon the hangar to get back to their barracks. The twilight sky was red that day, something that made Maria felt uncomfortable for some reason.

She decided to ignore the fact and concentrate on the hangar gates closing in front of her. She made a point in only turning away when everyone was out of the building and all the gates and doors locked. And usual, it was Ysabelle, always excited to work with all of those machines, who was pressing the switch which controlled the old gates. They slammed close with a great uproar, and then the girl went to close the Judas gate and lock it for the day.

"It's always impressive, isn't it?" Maria turned to face Anja. She didn't even notice she stayed behind.

"Yes, I guess."

Anja was holding her hands behind her back, her expression unusually somber.

"Have you given any thought to the conversation we had when we first brought the 38-tee out of this hangar?"

Those ideas again? Maria had actually dreaded the day this conversation would come around again. It was inevitable, it seemed.

"I still think it's wrong." She honestly admitted. "We should deliver these tanks and if the Soviets come too close we should then attempt to escape to the Baviera."

The other girl glanced away, exasperated.

"Is that your solution, to run away?"

"It's the more realistic solution, _Führerin_."

Anja put her hands behind her back, walked in a circle, and approached Maria from the other side.

"We are BDM, Nitzschmann. We will not be allowed to leave our post. And I will not stand idly while the enemy ravages our land! I will fight them out and die defending this country and my friends if I have to!" She glanced around to see if no-one was listening, and added, her voice a whisper. "You know those idiots in Berlin would just leave us to the enemy then allow us to escape our duty."

There was no way to negate that fact. Maria was too smart to ignore the lunacy which had taken hold of the Reichstag. The conversation was taking a toll on her tired body and mind. She was trembling and for a moment she couldn't even think clearly. She simply said: "Yes, I know…"

"Then help us survive! You know about military tactics! More than any of us!" Anja was now clenching her teeth, almost begging. "Help us."

"You're planning an insurrection, _Führerin_ Konigsberg." It was time to start calling things by their names.

The situation didn't escalate further only because at that moment they heard Ursel approaching them, calling them by their names. Anja and Maria turned to face her, the later actually relieved for the interruption. But the vice-leader wouldn't let her escape that easily. They would continue the conversation on some other occasion.

"We'll talk about this again." She whispered to her before glaring at the incoming girl. "What's the matter, Ursel?"

"I-it's Schon." She said, trying to catch her breath but also seemingly even more nervous than her usual self. "She wants to talk to you two."

Anja and Maria traded glances before hurrying to Schon's cabinet knowing it would be better to not let the leader waiting too long for them.

Two minutes later Anja was already knocking at the wooden door. A faint voice coming from the other side asked them to enter and so they did. Schon was sitting behind her desk, leaning over the right armchair, her chin planted on her hand. She had a deeply thoughtful expression and barely moved when the girls entered. For half a minute her most important actions were to glance at the girls and ask them to sit in the two simple chairs placed in front of the desk.

When she broke that pose Schon immediately glanced at Maria.

"So tell Nitzschmann," she started, going directly to the issue, "what's the current state in the restoration of those tanks?"

"It's going accordingly to schedule, _meine Fuehrerin_." She replied, nodding slightly. "We have four vehicles in full working order and one more underway. Two of the chassis are unrecoverable."

There was nothing to be done regarding the 38(t) and the M3 which had to be cannibalized to recover their twins, but Maria thought it was a fair trade, taking into account that with their sacrifice they've had enough time and spares to work on the remaining vehicles. The only one giving more problems was the Japanese Type 89, mostly because the manufacturer, if it still existed after the American firebombings, was on the other side of the world and spares were hard to come by. Fortunately Ysabelle had managed to modify some extra parts, managing to at least put the engine in working order. That was a resourceful girl indeed. In spite of her initial annoyance with her hero-worship, Maria eventually came to the conclusion that she actually liked her a lot.

"Good. But they are able to be driven on their own?" Schon insisted.

"Absolutely."

"Very well." Schon straightened and looked at both young girls. "I've received an order from Central. The tanks will be delivered to a _Panzergrenadier_ Battalion stationed nearby in a few days from now."

By this point Maria knew Anja well enough to guess that the news were making her tremble inside, although her expression seemed almost undisturbed. She'd grown to love the tanks and seeing them coming back to life was surely the most exciting thing to have happened since she was deployed there. Add that to her dreams about fighting off the invaders and whatnot…

"Any idea when will they come to receive them?" The girl asked, doing her best to hide her disappointment.

"They won't." Schon replied. "That's the issue. They claim to have no men to spare at the moment and asked us to deliver the vehicles to them."

"Really?" Now Anja almost betrayed herself with their enthusiasm. Schon might have noticed the hint of hope, but made no mention of it.

"Indeed. I've asked the central for instructions and they told me to make do as I can. So I want you to form a team to deliver them to the 77th as soon as possible. Minimal crews only. You depart as soon as the tanks are capable of getting out of here on their own." She finished her instructions by looking directly at Maria. The girl flinched instinctively.

"They will be ready, _Führerin_."

"_Gut_! Think about this issue. We'll deal with the details tomorrow."

When the younger girls left the cabinet, leaving Schon once again alone with her thoughts, Maria noticed the faint smirk starting to form in Anja's face. She only talked to her when they were in the outside once again. Night had settled in and only a few lights illuminated the core buildings of the complex.

"Do you know what this means?" Anja whispered, sounding like if she feared that talking too loud would somehow nullify what she'd just heard. "If we play our cards right this might become the chance we've been waiting."

Maria halted where she was, which made Anja turn back at her with a confused expression.

"You shouldn't…" She started. "Don't account for me in your plans. That's mean. And I will not betray Schon or any of the other leaders."

The vice-leader of the grouping lowered her head, snorting at her words.

"What a perfect soldier's daughter you are. If you don't want to come with us, then don't. You've taught us enough for the rest of us to take care of the tanks for a while, after all."

"But you don't want to simply get there and then come back in a truck, do you?"

"You know I don't." Anja now had her hands on her hips and didn't look like wanting to let the conversation drag much longer. She surely didn't want a killjoy like Maria to call her to reason. But, yet, Maria had to do it or she wouldn't be able to live with herself.

"Believe me, Konigsberg. You don't want to fight the enemy. You truly don't know what war is really like."

Anja stood there for a while, glancing at her. And then she simply turned and walked away. At that point Maria didn't know what to think anymore. For once she knew that if that girl had things her way then she and all of those who wanted to follow her would live through hell, dragged into something so horrible that even their worst nightmares paled in comparison.

But, on the other hand, she'd been living there for a month already. She knew those girls, she'd got acquainted with some colorful characters and even made a few friends. Could she simply turn her back to them and let them dive headfirst into the fire without being there to hold their hands? Could her presence made any difference whatsoever?

For the time being those were questions she didn't had any answer to. Once she got back to her bunk to try to sleep, they still lingered in her head, in a struggle which kept her awake while going nowhere.


	12. The Shape of Things to Come

XII

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

Meanwhile, mere two hundred kilometers eastward of Baderberg, a very different kind of fighting was taking place in the outskirts of the city of Breslau. German soldiers crawled across a trench hastily dug inside a set of rolling hills just a few days ago, when that position was considered defensible. How much had changed since then…

A sergeant, an old grizzled veteran who had seen far too many battles for a single lifetime, hurried to meet a bunch of soldiers defending one of the outer edges of the trench, barely flinching before the hail of bullets humming overhead or the explosions of mortar shells all around. From his position he couldn't see the larger picture in the enveloping landscape, but he was very capable of imagining it.

Tanks and soldiers covered the land in all directions, tracers marking lines of fire as artillery shells turned the land into a lunar landscape and columns of black oily some raised up to the cloudy sky. The screams of the men were barely audible over the rumble of gunfire, the roaring of the engines and the thundering of explosions. It was Hell on Earth, there was no other way to describe it.

The sergeant reached the couple of soldiers operating an MG34, an older machinegun which was still deadly even in the era of the famed MG42. They were kids, the grizzled veteran noticed, barely in their teens, cowering in fear both from the Soviet bullets and the sound of their own weapon.

"What's the situation?" He asked one of the kids, the loader. He glanced at him, his baby face covered in tears, his lips arching down as he sobbed. The sergeant snorted, knowing he would get no answer from that one. Fortunately the one operating the weapon itself seemed a little calmer.

"Not good." He paused to fire over two brown coats who had came a little too close. Just a short burst, enough to shred their chests and throw them into the half-melted snow. Good fire discipline, the sergeant noticed. That was why they still held that position when the enemy should have overrun them already. At least a few of the men still knew what they were doing. "Look."

Following his gaze the sergeant noticed the pack of Soviet tanks gathering near a small wood, almost a kilometer east of their position. That couldn't be good. The Soviets were know for simply run over defensive positions with their armor when they couldn't break them through conventional means, loses be damned. He snorted once again before turning at a nearby corporal who was now following the tanks with his gaze.

"How are we regarding _Panzerschrecks_?" The sergeant demanded to know.

The corporal glanced back at him, for an instant allowing fear to flash in his features. He then calmed down a little before giving the bad news with his voice as leveled as he managed to keep it.

"We're out, sir. Nothing left."

"We're out?" He expected to have at least two or three of the anti-tank rockets still available. That could manage to dissuade the Soviets from pressing on if all of them hit their targets and the defenders were very, very, lucky. Someone must have panicked and used them without his authorization.

_Damn kindergarten! When the Wehrmacht did stop being an Army?_ He thought to himself, without ever allowing the words to leave his mouth. As far as these kids knew they were all valiant defenders of the Fatherland in his eyes. And they would die believing in that blissful lie, even if the sergeant had personally stopped believing in any concept of courage, nation or God a long time ago.

There was nothing to do there. He raised his Schmeisser machine-pistol so all soldiers in that trench could see him and yelled: "Retreat! We're pulling back!"

The commanding officers wouldn't be happy with that action, but then again he just didn't care anymore. It was time to see how many of those kids would manage to get back to their mammies.

* * *

"They're running away!"

"Really? Where?"

"South."

"Ah, I see them now, Nonna."

The trench had to be awfully shallow, she thought to herself as she saw the line of grey coats pulling out, their backs exposed as they tried to crouch while walking out of their defensive position. Several of them fell down, some because they were clumsy, others because they got a rifle bullet through their spines.

Lieutenant Yekaterina Fiodorovna Zaitseva lowered her binoculars and allowed a vicious grin to spread across her pretty face. So the Fritz was running away? That would make her mission so much easier.

"Seems like they got scared of us." Nonna speculated.

Yekaterina looked back, turning in the command hatch of her T-34/85 to look at her second-in-command, who was also with half of her body out of the hatch of her own tank, a bulky IS-2. Her own binoculars rested in her hands as she faced the lieutenant.

"You think?" Yekaterina yelped, the smirk unwavering in her face. "I just wish they had some tanks with them. Then this would become truly interesting."

"I doubt the Fritz has run out of tanks, Katyusha. They're probably just gathering them for the final battle." Sergeant Nonna Artyomovna Agapova returned her smirk, although hers was much more contained, not overflowing with pure hatred like Yekaterina's. Then again, being 18 years old Nonna was still a couple years older than her fiery commanding officer. Some people could find strange that such young girls could be in command of an armored company, but those people probably didn't knew the hell through which the Red Army endured and remade itself. Regardless of their age, none of its soldiers acted like children anymore.

It was a hell Yekaterina knew all too well. She saw what the German soldiers did to her sisters almost four years ago when they invaded her homeland in Belarus. They only let her go because she was a mere child in their eyes and because, against all odds, she was actually lucky. Or then she would have also been used and disposed of on the spot.

For the next four years she sustained herself through pure unadulterated hatred, meeting Nonna in her way to Stalingrad, city were both of them had their first taste of actual combat and became recruited into the Red Army. Since then they became a team, fighting side by side against the bastards who killed 20 million of their people.

"Bah! I'm tired of going after small fish!"

"Well," Nonna shrugged, "Comrade Konev did give us this mission so we better enjoy it."

With an all too sinister glee Yekaterina turned at the distant line of retreating German soldiers and placed her hands around her mouth to yell at them.

"Hey, Fritz! Where are you going? We've got some fireworks to show you!"

Nonna knew all too well where that was heading.

"Now, don't overdo it, Katyusha." She said, very calmly. Her friend and superior officer chuckled once. And then she barked her orders to her company, yelling at the top of her lungs in her high-pitched voice.

"CHARGE! Kill them! Kill them all!" She was now pounding with her foot at the metal in the side of fighting chamber of her T-34, making a metallic sound which echoed inside the tank and raised the levels of adrenaline of the crew. "Huh-RAH!"

The sound of twenty tank engines going into overdrive thundered across the fields. The powerful armored vehicles rolled forward, their tracks digging long ditches across the mud while their main guns and smaller weapons spewed fire upon the retreating enemy. A powerful war cry flooded the radio chatter as the company in force echoed Yekaterina's howl.

"Huh-RAH!" A chorus of angry voices demanding vengeance spouted as the tanks started to reach full flanking speed.

In her post, standing on the open commander's hatch, the commander of the Pravda Company of the First Ukrainian Front felt the cold air splash against her pale face as the T-34 accelerated, actually moving ahead of the rest of the formation, her heart pumping adrenaline-filled hot blood through her body.

Unfortunately, in her opinion, crushing lightly-armored infantry formations, like that bunch of _Hitlerjugend_ kids, wasn't really that big of a challenge. If they had anti-tank weapons with them then they could bring on some interesting traps and tricks, but in that case she would have them flushed out with the infantry under her command, for the moment kept at reserve as she felt no need to use them, and then bring in the tanks.

Since Stalingrad that she hadn't faced a German commander she could consider to be a worthy opponent, someone who could give a true face to her thirst for revenge, someone that could actually challenge her. But for almost two hears the armored company she helped creating back at the city which held the name of the Comrade General Secretary was constantly used to flush out low-level enemy troops like those poor bastards now in their sights.

The Soviet Union was said to be a place of equality among Men, but some were still more equal than others and she felt that her unit, mostly made up of teenagers, especially girls, was being kept out of the main battles on purpose. But that was of little importance at the moment. The charge against Berlin was drawing near. It was certain that the Fascists would use all they had to stop the Red Army and then, in the midst of the chaos which was bound to unravel, she would finally face her one true opponent.

She could almost taste it, the opportunity to prove herself once again in armored combat. The person who would allow that was somewhere to the West, waiting for her. He had to!

Meanwhile, she had a bunch of hapless infantry grunts to crush under the iron tracks of her tanks. Yekaterina didn't thought of that at the time, neither did she ever considered the fact to be of any relevancy, but the truth was that the war among two of the most powerful nations in the planet had degenerated into a bunch of children killing each other.

The charge pressed on. Bodies were perforated, blown apart and smashed into pulp.

"Huh-RAH!"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

And thus we arrive at the end of this first iteration of Heimatfront. To those of you who came this far I hereby give you my deepest thanks and hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Many changes were made to encompass what I intended to do with it and I agree some were probably a little too much. And yet I love this piece dearly and I'm already working on the sequel.

See you in the next episode:

**"BAPTISM OF FIRE"**


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